Well, you have your siew mai…and I have my sio bee…
…but actually, I think they’re one and the same thing except that they’re in different Chinese dialects – the former is in Cantonese and the latter is in Hokkien. We did not use to have siew mai before there was dim sum here so all this while, right from my childhood days, we would have our own version of it which we call sio bee.
We certainly were a very deprived lot then, so very different from the kids today! How we craved for them and usually, it would be among the last few dishes at a Chinese dinner so everytime our mums were invited to one, we would sit by the doorway waiting for them to come home. More often than not, everybody would be too full by then so there would be a lot of the sio bee left over and our mums would use the pink-coloured paper serviette to wrap a few to take home for the children. Imagine our delight at being able to get hold of one, savouring it like it was something that had dropped down from heaven, never mind that it was already badly stained by the pink colour that had come off the paper.
I had these here when my West Malaysian blogger-friends and their families were in town…
…and I went back there again the other night to buy some for the people doing the renovation works at my house. I thought they were quite nice and besides, at only 50 sen each, they’re the cheapest in town.
In siew mai, the filling is made up of meat and prawns, beaten well till firm but the texture of our sio bee is very different. The good ones will have minced meat and shredded turnip (mangkuang/sengkuang) and whatever else in the right proportions, wrapped in the skin with chopped carrot on top…
– if I’m not mistaken, when I was young, they used salted egg yolk for the orange topping but for obvious reasons, they do not have that anymore.
These days, it is not easy to find some really good ones…but these, though not the best, are good enough. Just ask smallkucing…
I think he had three at one go…or was it Claire‘s son that had so many? Well, at 50 sen each, I certainly see no cause for complaint. What do you think?
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
aku yang ngap lah… hahaha… it was goood…
Ahhhhh!!!! So it was you! And it was you who finished off how many pieces of kompia as well, right? Of course, it was nice… Made in Sibu mah! LOL!!! 😉
Tengok body lah… And summore u said I eat less than kathy… Cis, menjatuhkan martabat aje!
LOL!!! I see you in MingMeiShi macam tak makan, look here, look there…other people eat only. Risau, bimbang saya…macam you tak suka bah!
me? tak suka food? muahaha…
Hard to believe, eh? LOL!!! 😀
But you memang eat lesser than Kat wud. 😛 Usually i saw Kat eat more than u oso leh!
There!!! I was right all along!!! Humph!
ooo you curi ngap ah……while he sibuk tackle lenglui
Hahahahaha!!! So that was what happened. 😉
LOL! See lenglui summre, padan ur muka papa ngap all ur food!
Like father, like son… I think before 21 already married lah this cheeky fella!
well the small kucing says all ..
opps mouth too busy n let the thumbs do the talking…
Actually over here we have pasar malam that sell cheap siew mai..
I think it is RM1 for 3 pcs… or RM2 for 5…..
but I don’t eat it .. coz I am not sure what type of meat they are using…
how could it be so cheap…..
That cheap? Here, these are the cheapest. Mostly 60sen…and a few others, 70sen. I know in some restaurants, RM1.20 tapao frozen…but if you want it already steamed RM1.30! Daylight robbery! Tsk! Tsk! I wonder what they have inside to be able to sell at that price…lots of flour and veg and hardly any meat perhaps, not nice lor.
So cheap…over here a plate of three pieces of siew Mai costs rm2.80 😉
That’s cheap! Dim sum siew mai here, the cheaper places…RM3.33 for three… 😦
Wow. Kuching already increase price to 60 cents per sio bee. >< I want cheaper food like Sibu!!!
See my reply to Simple person. Here also, mostly 60 sen…. 😦
the same story my dad used to tell me… 😀
And that’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth… So kesian, we people last time. 😉
I can’t remember the exact place but there’s a place in Kuching that’s famous for their sio bees. My dad used to bring back at least 50 of them whenever he jets over for meetings in the morning and back by evening. Since he used to travel there pretty often that kind of explains my size back then! 😛
Fook Hai… Very popular, people buy back to Sibu by the boxes…but I don’t like! Hard, tough, meat slight reddish. geli-geli makan…even though the taste is fine. If you like those, then you will like these:
https://suituapui.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/i-heard-it-through-the-grapevine/
– same taste…and texture, a lot nicer!
Thumbs up! Haha i had that I’ll give 2 thumbs up!! Or probably 3 or 4 including the toes :p
…and what else up? Muahahahahahaha!!!!!! 😀
My son loves siew mai. Everytime he goes back to visit his grandparents, his grandma will buy a few dozen of them to keep in the fridge for him for breakfast. There is one place in the market she frequented which sells really good ones and he can eat at least half a dozen or more at one go. However I still love the Sibu sio bee n I can still remember the ones u bought last time I visited were very nice.
Can’t remember which one I bought. Maybe the Sacred Heart lab assistant last time, people called him Uncle Chong. Simon would know, he always took photographs in the school. He and his missus make for sale… I wonder which stall at the market is good, haven’t heard of those.
aiyoh, siew mai and sio bee are the same lah, hahahaha!! but maybe yours is a little different, hokkien style?? the cantonese style uses yellow dumpling sheets, does not cover the whole thing but left an opening on top so that the shrimp roe can stay on the flat surface..
This is Hokkien style, is it? Dunno… Never seen anything like this elsewhere so I thought this is Sibu Foochow style. Elsewhere, all like dim sum siew mai…
I didn’t take that the other day and now I regretted.. hahahahaa… I was just way too full and my stomach kept screaming “No entry, no entry!” …
Must come again then…and you need a stretchable tummy if you come to Sibu. LOL!!! 😀
They call dim-sum “yum-char” here in NZ! Still not used to it.
Yup! They do. “Yum char” literally means “drink tea”. Thanks for dropping by and commenting, a warm welcome to you. Will link you in my blogroll. 😉
I was never crazy for siew mais,wantans and yang sewaktu dengannya until I went to visit you. I still don’t like siew mais and wantans but I like pian sip and sio bee, made in Sibu ones.I just like the texture and the ever so subtle taste.They were not as rough as their cousins 🙂
You’ve got great taste! Hehehehehehehe!!!! 😉
I gladly have a whole meal of siu mai…but with some tea to ease digestion for a weekend lunch or brekkie.
Aiyor…so much meat! 😉
me i could eat like 10 in one sitting 🙂
Gosh!!! That’s a lot!!! Ladies wil usually take 2-3, I can probably take a few more…but 10!!! @.@!!! LOL!!!
Sio bee, my favourite. Used to eat at open air market. Cost 60 sen each.
Used to love those a lot – in the 70s. Loved the chili sauce even…but last I hear, they’re not that great anymore.. 😦
Haha then you surely dont approve of the siew mai that I had last week… too expensive right? ;P
Expensive, ok lah…as long as it is so very nice, value for money. Once in a while, must indulge and pamper oneself mah. 😉
Haihh… this pic his muka no dot dot. 😦 His papa and him down with HMFD. No makan makan session with them for awhile. 😦 Hope they get well soon. I dunno to kesian or not to kesian Smallkucing or not, though. He seems to be enjoying the license to eat ice cream, drink lotsa 100Plus and ponteng. LOL!
You did not go over to visit kah? Bring lots of ice cream… Must eat for energy to recover fast but hard to eat solid foods, so painful.
These looks good and SO CHEAP? So that is another yummylicious thing that I missed for leaving early? My eyes turn green again! hehe
One day plus only…how to eat so many things. Must plan a longer trip next time… 😉